


You Found Me

by softmorts



Category: Hannibal (TV), Scalesverse
Genre: Dragon!Verse, Dragons!AU, F/M, M/M, there will be more to come, this is just a starting point
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-12
Updated: 2015-07-12
Packaged: 2018-04-08 23:44:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4325439
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/softmorts/pseuds/softmorts
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Beverly treats him as something more than an empath; she treats him as a friend. For the first time, he has someone he's truly afraid to lose.</p><p>Recalling of Seasons 1 through 2.05-ish with dragons and Will/Beverly. </p><p>***</p><p>The first in a series of drabbles wherein everything is pretty much the same except the food is people and the people is dragons.</p><p>In other words, I'm indulging in my obsession with mythology.</p>
            </blockquote>





	You Found Me

**Author's Note:**

> This accompanies the AU I have in my head, complete with designs and all that. Art of (most of) the dragons can be found at praczovski.tumblr.com/tagged/morty-draws or /tagged/dragon. There will be more uploaded later.
> 
> Also! In this universe, a hydra is the fusion of two or more dragons, usually through a deep emotional bond. It's done through fusing their elements together, but it can be undone and redone as often as needed. It's a bit like gem fusion in Steven Universe, actually. Except dragons aren't space rocks. They just consist heavily of elemental magic.

 

    One of the first things Will notices in the lab is how close and informal Price and Zeller are. They don't act like colleagues; they're almost like one mind in two bodies. That's what first clues him in to their involvement. It's a wonder, he thinks, that they  _are_ in two bodies. They're almost always touching - a brushing of wings, the tips of their tail blades clicking together, the twining of their sentences and shared thoughts. He wonders why they aren't a hydra.

    When he voices his confusion to Beverly, she rears her head back in a guffaw, and Will's ears press back, wings splaying in shock. He only lowers them when she raises a forepaw to grasp his shoulder, his tail twitching in confusion.

    "No, no," she gasps, eyes twinkling with mirth. "They're not a hydra, Will. Easy mistake to make, though, they certainly act like it."

    "So... they're not together then?" Will's confusion remains evident on his face, and Beverly smiles.

    "That's not at all what I said, Will Graham." She leans forward into his space and he barely resists the urge to move back. "Melding would impair their work in the lab, and even if they just separated for work, that isn't the main reason. The real reason," she bares her teeth in a pleased grin, "is that they don't think anybody  _knows_."

    Will decides then and there that he likes Beverly, likes her easy-going nature, likes how she treats him as just another dragon she can call a  _friend_ \- and he doesn't think he's ever had anyone like that.

***

    A week later, he hesitantly asks if she wants him to get her a coffee, and she looks almost amused. He's surprised, a little, when she agrees, moreso when she says she'll accompany. Most others don't keep Will's company if they can help it. Then again, Beverly isn't most others.

***

    Beverly Katz treats him like he's normal, doesn't skirt around him, doesn't try to shield him or hide from him or hurt him. He appreciates it. He thinks that's what makes him see her in a different light. It could be her witty humour, her charm, her intellect. Whatever it is, it leads his eyes to hers, pulls him towards the other dragon, causes them to meet as his mouth presses almost to hers before he catches himself and leaves in a flurry of apologies and pulled-back ears and ruffled feathers.

***

    They've been dancing around it, and by  _they_ he means  _he_ , and for the first time in his life Will Graham is actually scared of losing someone. So when he sees the blood on his forepaws and the scales littering the floor where they fell from the other dragon before she disappeared through the doorframe, he doesn't call Jack, he calls Beverly, because he knows she'll help him and he's been needing an opportunity to talk to her.

    When they're done, he asks, tentative, if she wants to come back to Wolf Trap, and to his shock and utter bemusement she agrees almost instantly. They make their way there in comfortable silence, an odd pair. He lets her in, silently makes his way to the kitchen to fetch two glasses, and raises the whiskey in a question to which her answer is a nod and a curling up of her lips which softens her eyes significantly, forelocks of her crest falling over her right eye, as she glances up from the pile of dogs surrounding her.

***

    When she flicks him with her tail to catch his attention and he turns, she's far closer than he thought. He opens his mouth without knowing what he'll say, but his chance to speak is stolen as she presses their mouths together, runs her tail over his and then presses their foreheads together, top of their muzzles meeting, a forepaw brought up to cup his jaw.

     _"Stop running from this, Will."_

***

    He barely meets her eyes as he's escorted from his home, wings pushed down and tied to his sides, tailblade covered in a sheath and cuffed to his neck. But he does, and he sees the hurt within them, the desperation, the pain of knowing it was her own evidence that convicted him. He looks away, pretends not to notice the droop of her wings, pretends not to care. But he does, and oh how it hurts.

***

    She believes him. He smiles bitterly. Even if he is killed for Hannibal Lecter's crimes, at least he knows someone did.

***

    He warns her to stay away from Hannibal Lecter. He hopes she listens. In his being, he knows she won't.

***

    The news of her death comes swiftly, a blow he was not prepared to take. In front of Jack and Alana he doesn't react, but in his mind, he's  _screaming_. And then - calm. He sees her, standing by the window, maroon feathers haloed in a display of brilliant light, her horns surrounded by the dark crest that cascades down her neck. In his soul, he can feel her reaching out, feel their elements intertwining as she stops the cacophony of despair that echoes in his head, makes it all quiet, tells it all to go away.

    Later, alone, he cries, the visions of her body sliced and displayed haunting him, refusing to let him be, as her voice telling him to interpret the evidence swirls around his brain.

***

    Time passes, he knows he has to let go. So on a cold winter evening, he enters his memory palace, and when he catches a glimpse of red feathers he turns, and she's there, beautiful and bright and strong, and a heavy feeling settles in his chest.

    "I'm letting you go, Beverly. I'm gonna catch him, but I have to let you go."

    She vanishes, an unspoken goodbye hanging in the air between them, and he opens his eyes and releases a breath he didn't know he was holding. He promises, silently vows, to remember her, that beautiful maroon dragon made of witty, intelligent humour and wisdom.

    And he knows he always will.


End file.
